Method of gathering peat.



T. RIGBY.

METHOD OF GATHERING FEAT.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 23, I911.

Patented Jan. 25, 1916.

s SHEETS-SHEET 1.

//VVE/V7OA W/rA/EssEs I -.THE COLUMBIA PLANOGRAPH (10., WASmNu'mN, D c

T. RIGBY.

METHOD OF GATHERING PEAT. APPLICATION FILED MAY 23. 1911.

1,169,679. Patented Ja11.25, 1916.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

//v VE/VTOA Thomas my 3) ATTORNEYS THE COLUMBIA PLANOGRAPH 00., WASHINGTON, B. c

T. RIGBY.

METHOD OF GATHERING PEAT.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 23. 1911.

Patented Jan. 25, 1916.

3 SHEETS SHl-IET 3.

THOMAS RIGBY, or Dui-arnrns, scornann,

ASSIGNGR T0 W'ETGARBONIZING LIMITED,

or L'oNnoN, ENGLAND.

METHOD Oi? GATHERING FEAT.

Application filed May 23, 1911.

This invention has for its object improvements in methods of atherin seat from peat bogs and delivering it where required. The method usually employed'is either to cut up the peat by dredgers or other excavating machines and deliver it into wagons for transport to where it is required or else to cut it by hand and convey it by the same means.

Further various methods have been proposed for excavating peat and mixing the same with water and conveying the fluid mud hydraulically, but so far as I am aware there has been no previous method proposed or even suggested in which the excavated peat is disintegrated and pulverized to a pulp before attempting to pump it along the pipe line.

According to this invention, I propose to cut the peat by means of any suitable excavator in the first place, to pulverize and disintegrate it in a peat-cutting machine in the second place, and finally pump it in the condition of pulp along a suitable pipe to the point at which delivery is desired.

it has been found essential for successful working that the peat shall be pulverized and reduced to pulp before it is pumped, and I usually arrange that the pump and pulverizer be carried or mounted either on the same structure as the excavator or else on a separate structure working in close proximity thereto. 1 1

I usually providea flexible pipe between the pump and a fixed point in the pipe-line, so that a more or less great width of cutting can be made without any alteration in the pipe-line being rendered necessary. lnsome cases instead of a flexible pipe, it is preferable to use one containing swivel or knuckle joints or telescopic joints so arranged that the necessary fiexibility is obtained.

It will be understood that by such an arrangement the excavator can be shifted at Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Jan. 25, 1916.

Serial No. teams.

will without any alteration being required to the pipe-line for long periods of time.

The apparatus may be arranged on the surface of the peat bog in any desirable manner or the excavator and other machinery may be floated in the lake of water which is usually formed by the excavation and removal of the peat. In the latter case, it becomes necessary to float the pipe-line in addition to the excavating machinery, and this may be done in any suitable manner either by pcntcons or barrels or equivalent arrangement in the accompanying three sheets of drawings is illustrated an arrangement which ll propose to employ in cutting out a channel say five hundred feet wide in a peat bog, the peat being removed the full depth of bog which is say approximately twenty eet.

In Figure 1 is shown in sectional elevation a diagram of an excavator mounted on a pontoon floating in the water caused by the excavation already effected in the bog. Fig. 2 is a plan of the same showing the excavator combined with a pontoon carrying the disintegrator and pump, the pump, in this second pontoon being connected by means of a movable pipe to the fixed pipe-line. Fi is. 3, 4t and 5 are detail. views on a. larger scale of the movable pipe and its flexible joints.

On Sheet 1, a designates the pontoon, on which is mounted a mechanical. excavator 7), worked by electricity or other suitable power, to dig out the peat c and convey it by its bucket cl to the disintegrator e which is mounted on a second pontoon f. The disintegrator may be oi any suitable known type to break up and pulverize the peat, the

peat first passingthrough a stone catching device of any suitable form, and the peat is then discharged in a pulped condition intoa receiver 6 from which it is conducted by a pipe 9 and discharged into a force pump it which is also carried on the second pontoon From the pump 72- the pulverized and disintegrated peat pulp is forced through the movable line of pipes z' to the fixed pipe-line j which is supported on the fixed piled stage or platform 70.

A number of flexible joints are arranged in the pipe 2' between the fixed pipe-line j and the pontoon f, and are so arranged that the pipe isfiexible either horizontally or vertically. I obtain such flexible joints as illustrated in the detail views Sheet 3 by coupling each pair of pipes by a screw coupling wherever suchfiexible joint is required.

Fig. 3 shows a portion of the movable pipe-line comprising four sections 2' of such pipes and having three flexible joints 2" (see Fig. 5) and two fixed joints 2' When it is required that the'pipe shall be adjusted a little, the inner screw can turn in the outer one or the outer screw can turn on the inner one, (Fig. 5) and so enable thepipe-line to be twisted or adjusted to any desired angle.

r Fig. 3 illustrates both the horizontaland vertical adjustment and Fig. 4 the horizontal adjustment only. The screw joint pre ventsthe material being pumped from esoaping,and any degree of flexibility'can be obtained to accommodate the movable pipeline to variations in level and direction.

At intervals, depending on the rate of cutting, the flexible pipe'arrangement is moved in the direction of the cutting, and another section of pipe is inserted in' the fixed line inorder to make up for the distance traversed by the excavator. In this manner the excavating machinery can be worked practically continuously, and the material excavated, after being pulverized and disintegrated to a pulped condition, is pumped to the point where it is to be utilized.

. To disintegrate the material and reduce it to the pulped uniform'condition required to enable it to be pumped successfully, I may use any disintegrating or pulverizing machinery which may be found suitable for this work, and I may use any type of pump or pumping device for the purpose of propelling the peat pulp through the pipe-line to any. desiredposition. I find as already stated that it is absolutely necessary to pulfverize the peat to a pulped and uniform to pump condition of division before it can be pumped any great distance, asany attempt undisintegrated peat is followed by immediate plugging up of the passages,

and the combination of this pumping device with the pulverizing device by which it is disintegrated and reduced to pulp 18 one of themain features ofthis lnvention.

Ifind in practice that I can in some cases pump the peat as it is excavated after 1t has been disintegrated whereas without the pulverizer large quantities of water have to be added to it to enable it to be pumped at all even for short distances, and even when a large quantity of water has been added without disintegration and pulping there isstill a considerable tendency for the pipes to choke and become blocked. When the material is disintegrated before pumping and reduced to a uniform condition of sub-division it can be obtained either alone or with added water in a condition in which it behaves as water and can be pumped to practically unlimited distances.

Although the excavator is shown and described as carried on one pontoon and the disintegrator and the pump on a second pontoon, it is obvious that they may all be mounted on one pontoon if found more 0011- venient or desirable, and in this connection I wishit to be clearly understood that I am aware that it is not broadly new to mount an excavator or a pump upon a pontoon but I believe it to be new to mount the three elements, viz., excavator, disintegrator and pump, in combination upon a pontoon or pontoons and I desire to claim the same. It will also be understood that in some cases it may prove advantageous, to employ the disintegrating or pulverizing device in conjunction with the pump and either a fixed or movable pipe-line without employing the particular method of excavating hereinbefore described and as illustrated.

Having now described my invention what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is 1. A method of gathering peat, consisting in excavating the peat, pulverizing the same while containing the same quantity of water as it did in the natural state in the undrained bog. thereby reducing it to a pulp of watery fluidity, and'in thereafter pumping the watery pulp through a pipe line to the required locality.

2. A method of gathering peat, consisting in excavating the peat, comminuting the peat while containing substantially the same quantity of water as in its original state in the bog to such an extent that by comminution alone it is rendered pumpable, and thereupon pumping the resulting pulp through a pipe line to the desired locality.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

1 THOMAS RIGBY.

IVitnesses FRED MIDDLETON, HARMON O. Acorn.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the "Commissioner of Patents, 7 Washington, D. C. 

